On Thursday morning, Apple announced a series of related initiatives designed to modernize learning based around its iPad tablet. Apple is hoping to "reinvent textbooks" and change the way we learn with an updated iBooks 2 app, which works with interactive textbooks built with the iBooks Author desktop app, and an expansion of iTunes U that offers course materials and K-12 access. And according to several experts we spoke to, Apple's announcement today could do just that.

Several educators were particularly bullish on the impact that Apple's move into the digital textbook market will have on both teaching and learning. Assistant Professor of Arts, Media, and Design at Boston's Northeastern University Matthew Gray told Ars that iBooks 2 and iBooks Author will be a "fantastic" improvement over what's commonly used in universities now.

"A pivotal year for students"

"Personally, I love this development" Gray said. "What was funny to me was the continuous emphasis on the word 'book.' But what Apple's new technology says to me, however, is 'syllabus.' This new kind of ebook acknowledges that we all can Google things, and therefore education needs something to bridge 'fixed' knowledge and 'fluid' delivery systems for knowledge. An e-book can use its unique referencing ability to link a far wider resource library to students."

Abilene Christian Univeristy's director of educational innovation, Dr. William Rankin, also believes Apple's digital textbooks and iTunes U expansion will have a major transformative effect. "Teachers no longer have to have an IT department, digital infrastructure, or really even buy-in from their school," Rankin told Ars. "Apps, notes, syllabi, textbooks—they all integrate. As long as I can get iPads for my students, I can do it all."

Rankin further explained that iBooks Author and iTunes U could "disrupt the relationship" between teachers and schools. "This will democratize the relationship between content producers and consumers. A teacher will be able to do anything they need for their class, and not be as dependent on textbook publishers or school administrations."

He described the potential for a revolution in learning comparable to Gutenberg's introduction of the printing press. Interactive digital texts like those demonstrated by Apple will allow learning to "transgress walls," and the iPad's mobility will allow learning to happen "in situ," in whatever context is most appropriate.

"It used to be about location, location, location. Now it's all about connection, connection, connection," Rankin told Ars. "It will take people a long time to realize the implications of that."

That feeling is shared by Brad Wheeler, vice president of information technology at Indiana University, who has been running a very successful e-text program at IU. That program, along with help from IU, is being expanded on a pilot basis to five new universities in Spring 2012, including UC-Berkeley, Cornell, Minnesota, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Wheeler believes that Apple's announcements will be a shot in the arm for the kind of digital text programs he supports. "The economics of college textbooks are structurally flawed and are failing students, authors, professors and publishers," Wheeler told Ars. "Different approaches, including free resources and companies trying to restructure the industry—as Apple did for music—are in play."

But the change can't come soon enough, Wheeler explained. "2012 is looking to be a pivotal year for students, authors, and publishers, as we finally reform entrenched textbook practices that fail everyone, but especially fail our students. Billions are being allocated to author Open Educational Resources, Apple is credibly seeking to apply its platform and transform the textbook business starting with K-12, and universities are taking the lead in cutting money-saving deals directly with publishers."

"We need more of all of this, and faster," Wheeler said.

The iPad requirement

Still, adopting iPads for every student gives rise to cost concerns. Schools may negotiate bulk deals with Apple to provide iPads to every student, though tight budgets often rule out the iPad, even with an education discount as low as $420. Those costs may shift to parents as students may be expected to bring their own device.

"If you are a very small school and you can afford to offer your students an iPad, great," Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of BookRenter, told Ars. "If you are a large school district, then you are probably not going to be able to do this. That means that a small percentage of students who can afford iPads will purchase the digital versions of their textbooks."

While an iPad can represent an expensive up-front cost, however, the ability to have the most up-to-date information and Apple's downward pressure on textbook prices may more than make up for the difference.

"Traditional textbooks start at $90," John Gaskell, Chemistry Teacher at the Singapore American School in Singapore, told Ars. "$15 texts can now actually make the iPad a cost savings for districts.

Wes Molyneaux, a science teacher a technology expert for New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, agrees that lower text costs will actually make an iPad more attractive.

"Right now the Pearson Biology text is selling for $75.00 on Amazon," Molyneaux told Ars. "In the iBookstore it is selling for $14.99."

iBooks Author also offers important advantages for both teachers and students. "Teacher-created content that aligns with their own curriculum just became easier to author," Molyneaux said. "We can now create our own content that matches what we want to cover. And a high school student could create a project using the new iBooks Author app and be able to put it out there for other students to read. This creates real-world learning opportunities that were not there yesterday."

Let's talk about rights

But costs aren't the only concern. Apple's closed platform still presents challenges for publishers, authors, and students. Oman Rashid, CEO of digital textbook company Kno, told Ars that supporting multiple platforms will be an important part of changing the landscape of education. "Public schools and universities aren't likely to say, 'Forever I'm going to choose one platform,'" Rashid told Ars. "We're on multiple platforms, not just the iPad."

"I'm really excited by Apple's entry into the market," Rashid said. "It will boost the entire industry. I want to see how publishers respond, because publishers will have to be able to build content for platforms other than the iPad."

And though students will have permanent access to a text once purchased, including free updates to content and unlimited re-downloads, what will student be able to do with the content? Intellectual property lawyer Nazli Saka, who also holds a masters degree in education from Harvard, thinks this question will need answers, and soon.

"There's no denying that this new textbook experience will revolutionize learning and education," Saka told Ars. "But will Apple be willing to let users interact with the textbooks on multiple digital platforms and not just the iPad?" So far, according to the EULA for iBooks Author, that answer seems to be "no."

"How about ownership of content?" Saka asked. "If Apple owns it, then it could presumably withdraw it anytime it wants, thus leaving students without textbooks at the time of need. How will end user license agreements be constructed so that students can print portions of the books and use them for class work without infringing any copyrights? As an IP lawyer, I'm cautious," she said.

I've been previewing this new iBooks Authoring app and let me say, it's impressive, even magical. It must suck to be a PC user right now, LOL. Mac only, gents. That's becoming more common day by day. Hey, at least you guys have those nice Wintel stickers, right?

This is a joke, right? At what point does buying a $600 device per student make sense compared to continual rotation of textbooks between students?

So, each student who enters a school system is bought an iPad, because you can't expect parents to afford something like that for a student and you've made education compulsary, so they must go. How does a parent on welfare or minimum wage afford such an extravgence?

So the school systems have to up-front pay that cost. Then, per student per year, $15 per textbook? Not $70 once, split among several students as it's returned and reused again over the useful life of the book, but the same fee payment every year, while the student builds up a library of books they won't need more than that year?

I like the idea of a digital textbook. I don't like the idea of it being only in the control of Apple, who've shown how abusive they are to the market and how controlling they are of content and user rights. Whatever the digital textbook system is, it needs to be multi/open platform, primarily so it can be on inexpensive devices like say, a Kindle.

And really, a Kindle-type device seems a better choice than an iPad.

I think you need to redact Experts and change it to 'idiots' in your article title.

I dont understand this quote - maybe this person does not understand how this works...

"Traditional textbooks start at $90," one K-12 teacher told Ars. "$15 texts can now actually make the iPad a cost savings for districts.

This is an absolute nightmare - each book has to be assigned to an iTunes account, and the itunes account has to be for the individual user. The student gets an access code and can then use the book. BUT it is only for a single student. So every year the school is buying a 15$ book for every student... + an iPad, and paying for repairs and maintenance.

If you have an account there its an interesting read. The costs for maintaining an iPad program is immense as there is no self service options like laptops, and almost any break is a complete lose of the equipment - apples ADP only covers a single screen break, these schools are spending tens of thousands of dollars keeping these tablets working...

I went to New Trier high school. What the article doesn't mention is how that's a school district where the vast majority of households can afford to buy an iPad, and where theft is less likely. I can't see the same being true for inner city school districts that are struggling.

Really, it sounds like greed. Apple using other content to continue driving their own profits. People that buy an ipad for school are likely going to be using it for things other than textbooks... which locks them in. I do welcome a system that'll get rid of expensive college textbooks, but not at the expense of a hugely closed platform - had Apple provided it as an open platform that allowed Android and PC use, I'd probably have no issues with it whatsoever.

It's not fair to students like myself that prefer an alternative platform. Luckily though, I'm about to graduate, and doubt I'll be returning to academia any time soon.

Yeah right... and the students are just using that for reading their textbooks and not for playing/facebook whatever... wow, just wow, Apple just managed to put some distractions in the classrooms, but this is revolution right... and don't say a word about educational games please.

I feel sorry for anyone in a high crime area. I went to a middle class highschool and even petty theft was active. I was relieved of at least $400 over my course of highschool of shit i had to replace myself.

Back in the day when a $150 Graphic calculator was expensive and hard to pay for, I can imagine a $300 iPad (let say they "educational" discount these things) which people would actively want to steal.

The other issue will be power. I mean how many kids will use the excuse of I forgot to charge my Textbook so I can't use it. I mean how many highschools these days are wired for power at each desk.

Sure, there will be issues and circumstances where old-school text books are preferable, but I can also see this doing some fascinating things. And the cost-of-entry is only going to go down over time, so even if it is only economically viable in a few circumstances now, that's a very good start.

Schools (particularly in the textbook arena) have enjoyed vendor lock-in for many years now, so that is nothing new. While this, similarly, ties them to the iOS universe, at least it has the promise of competition within the ecosystem and a higher quality, more freely accessible product.

What sort of gullible fool actually believes that the textbooks available for $15 are actually going to be content equivalent to the existing dead tree textbooks; that authors and publishers are actually going to take a cut in revenue per book out of the goodness of their hearts?

More likely, they'll be split up into smaller sub-units such that publishers make a larger profit per student than they would have previously, particularly considering this eliminates the need for dead tree manufacturing.

Sounds like a problem for Apple to address at their next product unveiling. $349 iPad 2s?

Seems like in typical apple fashion the old model is discontinued - rumor has it the parts for the ipad2 are already out of production.

You can thank Google (if it ever happens) when apple keeps selling older models for dirt cheap to combat all the $200 android tablets. Otherwise apple would have ditched the iphone 3GS a loooong time ago.

Well, given a suitably protective iPad case, the same is true of an iPad containing all 6 books of your current subjects as well as the books from the last three years in case you want to look something up you remember reading about two years ago. And even with such a protective case, the iPad is smaller and lighter than even the smallest of those textbooks. Oh, and it costs about the same when you figure in $499 for the iPad and $15 for each of those 6 books, a total of $589, versus $90 for each of those books, a total of $540. Even at $75 wholesale cost per book, you end up breaking even at just 9 books (8.3, actually).

Textbooks have a surprisingly high "breakage" rate. Not so much from dropping while closed (unless they hit the ground just right), but dropping while open (pages rip and crease), having things dropped on them while they are in a large stack because the student is trying to go between multiple different sources, having bindings broken because the student couldn't be bothered to find a slip of paper to use as a bookmark, etc.

I'm not a big fan of iPad-only (even though we have a couple iPads in the house), but overall the shift to electronic textbooks is a MASSIVE increase usability, durability, and cost.

What sort of gullible fool actually believes that the textbooks available for $15 are actually going to be content equivalent to the existing dead tree textbooks; that authors and publishers are actually going to take a cut in revenue per book out of the goodness of their hearts?

More likely, they'll be split up into smaller sub-units such that publishers make a larger profit per student than they would have previously, particularly considering this eliminates the need for dead tree manufacturing.

$15 per student... the school can not re-use the book for another student (as its tied to the students itunes account), Apple and the publishers will likely make a lot of money off of this. There is no savings for this program to work, in reality it will cost quite a bit more than standard books.

There have been many schools that have saved money using e-texts, but those are only texts that the school OWNS and can re-distribute at will.

So long as the format is forced to be open and supported across any and all tablet platforms, I'm cool with that. Education cannot abide by closed proprietary systems. Perhaps congress can agree to force everything to become open if this looks like it is going somewhere (I doubt it.).

I'll hold judgment until school librarians start chiming in. I'd much rather listen to the people with the most involvement in a new book publication/distribution platform for schools than a group of breathless technophiles. Next month's SLJ can't come soon enough!

goldfire wrote:

What? What the hell can you possibly do to a book to get it to 3 gigs?

Honestly? I can't remember a single semester in all of college where I spent less than the article-supplied $420 on books anyway. At least an iPad would be worth more than $5 at the end of the semester.

Not bad in theory, but a closed-source, proprietary system is not the best method in my opinion. One problem I foresee -- and I imagine they have found some way to deal with this -- is the inability to quickly write in the margins of the books. I was a rabid margin-scribbler in college, and I found it very helpful to have notes/commentary from the lecture there when I went back to re-read in preparation for exams/papers.

I dont understand this quote - maybe this person does not understand how this works...

"Traditional textbooks start at $90," one K-12 teacher told Ars. "$15 texts can now actually make the iPad a cost savings for districts.

This is an absolute nightmare - each book has to be assigned to an iTunes account, and the itunes account has to be for the individual user. The student gets an access code and can then use the book. BUT it is only for a single student. So every year the school is buying a 15$ book for every student... + an iPad, and paying for repairs and maintenance.

If you have an account there its an interesting read. The costs for maintaining an iPad program is immense as there is no self service options like laptops, and almost any break is a complete lose of the equipment - apples ADP only covers a single screen break, these schools are spending tens of thousands of dollars keeping these tablets working...

Some of these concerns are legitimate. But you don't know what you're talking about. My school has distributed hundreds of iPads to students and factuality. We've had 10 screens cracked on iPad 2s. But not one single iPad 1 has been damaged so far.

I went to New Trier high school. What the article doesn't mention is how that's a school district where the vast majority of households can afford to buy an iPad, and where theft is less likely. I can't see the same being true for inner city school districts that are struggling.

Exactly. New Trier while possibly the best high school in America is also a school that pays IIRC 80k a year median wage to their teachers. Its a district were the median home price is over 600k. Where the district median wage is over 120k. Kids here don't have to worry about dropping and losing their Ipads. The school can throw a bake sale and raise the money needed for Ipads for every kid in the school in about 10 minutes.

What sort of gullible fool actually believes that the textbooks available for $15 are actually going to be content equivalent to the existing dead tree textbooks; that authors and publishers are actually going to take a cut in revenue per book out of the goodness of their hearts?

More likely, they'll be split up into smaller sub-units such that publishers make a larger profit per student than they would have previously, particularly considering this eliminates the need for dead tree manufacturing.

Again exactly. What quility author are you going to find that is going to write at a third or more of their current royalty rate? Especially when that money ends up in Big Techs hands not even the schools.

Not bad in theory, but a closed-source, proprietary system is not the best method in my opinion. One problem I foresee -- and I imagine they have found some way to deal with this -- is the inability to quickly write in the margins of the books. I was a rabid margin-scribbler in college, and I found it very helpful to have notes/commentary from the lecture there when I went back to re-read in preparation for exams/papers.

You can very easily highlight a word or words and attach a typed note of ANY length to each highlight.

I dont understand this quote - maybe this person does not understand how this works...

"Traditional textbooks start at $90," one K-12 teacher told Ars. "$15 texts can now actually make the iPad a cost savings for districts.

This is an absolute nightmare - each book has to be assigned to an iTunes account, and the itunes account has to be for the individual user. The student gets an access code and can then use the book. BUT it is only for a single student. So every year the school is buying a 15$ book for every student... + an iPad, and paying for repairs and maintenance.

If you have an account there its an interesting read. The costs for maintaining an iPad program is immense as there is no self service options like laptops, and almost any break is a complete lose of the equipment - apples ADP only covers a single screen break, these schools are spending tens of thousands of dollars keeping these tablets working...

Some of these concerns are legitimate. But you don't know what you're talking about. My school has distributed hundreds of iPads to students and factuality. We've had 10 screens cracked on iPad 2s. But not one single iPad 1 has been damaged so far.

Eric,

Well then your school is doing better than every other school with 1:1 deployments in the country... If you get eschoolnews you should read that article, and contact the schools with iPad distributions... Just saying in my experience 1:1 programs of any kind are expensive, things break, get dropped... For your school to have deployed hundreds of iPads and have only 10 screen breaks seems quite unbelievable to me... And no I dont know what I am talking about... I've only handled a couple 1:1 school deployments...

please...

EDIT:

You work for the Gemological Institute of America, this is not k-12... I was speaking of k-12 - did you check out the link?